Vice & Virtue

Parker City Mystery #2

by Justin M. Kiska

Parker City, 1984…

Three years after the Spring Strangler case rocked the historic Western Maryland city nestled at the foot of the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains, life has returned to normal for Detective Ben Winters and his partner, Tommy Mason. With a new chief now leading the department and the city slowly crawling out of its economic distress, everything seems to be moving in the right direction. Until one sweltering summer day, a killer begins targeting police officers. Ben and Tommy find themselves once again leading an investigation the likes of which Parker City has never seen. The detectives quickly come to realize that until the shooter is found, everyone wearing a badge is in danger.

To complicate matters even further, when a recently unearthed skeleton mysteriously connects to the string of police homicides, Ben and Tommy begin to think their current case may be tied to events twenty years earlier.

But how could a skeleton buried two decades ago hold the key to solving their current case?

Genres: Suspense

288 pages, Paperback

Published February 15, 2022

About the author

When not sitting in his library devising new and clever ways to kill people (for his mysteries), Justin can usually be found at The Way Off Broadway Dinner Theatre, outside of Washington, DC, where he is one of the owners and producers. In addition to writing the Parker City Mysteries Series, he is also the mastermind behind Marquee Mysteries, a series of interactive mystery events he has been writing and producing for over fifteen years. Justin and his wife, Jessica, live along Lake Linganore outside of Frederick, Maryland.

Learn more about Justin by visiting www.JustinKiska.com.

Reviews

["Avonna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Check out all my reviews at: https://www.avonnalovesgenres.com

VICE & VIRTUE (A Parker City Mystery Book #2) by Justin M. Kiska is an engaging and gripping mystery/crime thriller/police procedural in the Parker City Mystery series. I am very surprised after reading the first book in this series, Now & Then that there is even a second book. (When and if you read the first book, which I highly recommend, you will understand my surprise.) This book is easily read as a standalone.

As Parker City begins to revitalize and rebuild, a skeleton is found under an old, condemned warehouse. Detective Sergeant Ben Winters and his partner Detective Tommy Mason are called to the scene.

Just as they begin to investigate the discovered skeleton, they are called to the murder scene of a fellow law enforcement officer. The old case goes on the back burner when a second and third officer are killed. As Parker City is just getting over the serial killer case from three years ago, Ben and Tommy now have a cop killer on the loose.

Ben and Tommy realize until they solve this case, all of their fellow officers are in danger But what they only come to realize as they work the current case is that the old skeleton from the warehouse may be tied to their present day murders.

I am as impressed with this second book as I was with the first. Mr. Kiska is very adept at plotting two timelines that intertwine with plenty of plot twists and are as equally important to the solution of the detectives’ current cases in the 1980’s as the older case from the 1950’s. Both main characters, Detective Sergeant Ben Winters and his partner, Detective Tommy Mason are fully fleshed, realistic, and likable. Their dialogue and banter is believable and enjoyable. A few of the secondary characters are a bit cliché, but not so much as to detract from my enjoyment of the story.

I highly recommend this mystery/crime thriller with two detectives I want to continue to follow in any decade in future books.

[Bill Kiska · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hard to put down.

What a great read. Ben and Tommy are great pair of detectives. This second book was full of plot twists and moving back in time though out just made it even more intriguing. Can' t wait for the next one.

[Anne - Books of My Heart · Rating 4 out of 5]

This review was originally posted on Books of My Heart
 

Review copy was received from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

I read the first book in the Parker City Mystery series and suffered a bit of first book syndrome where I am settling into the world and characters being developed.  I was not helped by the scenes going back and forth in time from Ben & Tommy's first case to the present when Tommy is retiring.

With Vice & Virtue,  I am much more connected to the characters and more familiar with other characters, as well as the foundation of town events in the first book. Plus I'm comfortable with the two timelines story format now.  You could likely read this one without the first, but I always prefer to get the full development.  The time here follows the previous book, by about 3 years.  Parker City is a small town and murders aren't an everyday thing.  When they occur, the murders seem to be tied to secrets from the past.  So there is the alternation in time from now to about 30 years ago.

The investigation was exciting to follow along and even more intense with the killing of a police officer.  Ben & Tommy are in a much better position now, with having a smart and honest chief, and a bit of confidence being detective for a longer time now.  They are talented and have compatible skills, working well together.  It was nice to have a backdrop of their personal lives for more layers of story.

I'm really taken with these characters and this series.  I'm happy to continue reading more about the town, its secrets and the surely productive careers of Ben & Tommy as the town grows.


Excerpt:

Tall and athletic, Tommy Mason always reminded Ben of Tom Selleck’s Magnum P.I. character from television. Tommy always had that whole ruggedly handsome thing going for him. Mixed with a little bit of a “bad boy” vibe and he drove the women wild.

Next to Ben’s clean-cut, buttoned-down appearance, their pairing caused many to do a doubletake. At first glance, they appeared to be complete opposites. But as one got to know them, they were very much alike. Each brought out the best in the other and at the end of the day, it was all about getting the job done. Sure, each had his own style, but that’s what made them such a formidable team.

Tommy’s apparent willingness to skirt the rules was always offset by Ben’s ability to find ways to use the rules to their benefit. Just as Ben’s refusal to play the internal politics game allowed Tommy to use his charm to keep too many feathers from getting ruffled amongst the powers-that-be. They each knew the other’s strengths and weaknesses and how to adapt them to their own, which is why they’d been so impressive in getting the PCPD’s Detective Squad off the ground.

“What are you doing here?” Ben asked, more than a little surprised to see his partner.

“Shirley from Dispatch called me. She thought I’d be interested,” Tommy explained. “And before you say anything about what I’m wearing, I just want to remind you, it is our day off, so I didn’t think I needed to get dressed up to come to a potential crime scene. Especially when we don’t actually know this is a crime scene yet.”

He was referring to the fact he had on a T-shirt and comfortable pair of jeans, as opposed to the full suit and tie Ben was wearing.

“Besides, now you don’t have to worry about getting your fancy suit muddy. I have no problems getting down there in the dirt,” Tommy smiled, pointing at the fresh mud stains on his knees. With that, he knelt back down to take another look at the exposed skeletal remains under the floorboards.

“So, tell me. What do we have?” Ben asked, crouching next to Tommy so he could get a better look.

“You can see there’s a pretty big cavity here under this part of the floor,” Tommy pointed out. “It’s got to be a good ten by ten area where the ground has been eaten away, even though it’s not too deep, less than a foot in some places. It’s definitely because of water…there’s a lot of mud down there. As the earth under the floor eroded, it uncovered the skeleton. Partway, at least. Of course, no one could see what was happening under here until our friend Mr. Haggarty had the unfortunate experience of stepping on a board that was rotted through and it snapped, sending him falling through the floor. You can see where he landed in the mud.

“And right there,” Tommy pointed, “you see the skull and top portion of the skeleton sticking out of the ground.”

“You came face-to-face with that thing, man?” Tommy looked over at the construction worker who was leaning against the wall. “Not a good way to start the day.”

“Yeah. You’re telling me,” Haggarty answered.

Turning back to the skeleton, Tommy said, “I’m no expert, but that hole in the skull right there…see it, it looks like it could be a GSW from a pretty heavy caliber gun.”

Leaning down and twisting his head so he could try and get a better look at the skull, Ben saw the hole and wondered if his partner was right. Finding a skeleton buried under the floor was one thing. Finding a skeleton buried under the floor with a bullet hole in its skull was something else. It took everything to a different level.

Standing and stretching their legs, Tommy said, “When Shirley first called me, I thought this was going to have been some kind of prank. Some kids snuck into the site on a dare and left a skeleton for the crew to find.”

“You thought kids somehow buried a skeleton under this building in the hopes someone would fall through the floor and find it?” Ben asked, raising an eyebrow. “Not to mention having to figure out how to bury the thing under the floor?”

“In my defense,” Tommy started, raising a finger and shaking it at his partner, “I didn’t know the skeleton was buried under the warehouse. I just knew they’d found a skeleton at the warehouse.”

The first thing that needed to happen was to get the skeleton out of the ground. That would be up to the crime scene techs. Even though he could easily reach in and pull the skull out to get a better look, Ben didn’t want to disturb anything more than it already had been when Lance Haggarty crashed through the floor. Thankfully, he hadn’t actually landed on the skull itself.

“So much for our day off,” Ben said, looking at his watch, wondering where the crime scene guys were.

[Lelia Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not long ago, I was thinking about all the subgenres of crime fiction and that my tastes really hadn’t changed in a very long time. I read lots of traditionals, cozies, private investigators, true crime, thrillers, etc., but not much in the way of noirs, hardboiled, romantic suspense. One subgenre that has always appealed to me is police procedural and I’m forever looking for the next good one, either standalone or series and, in Vice & Virtue, I think I’ve “discovered” another.

Ben Winters and Tommy Mason have a partnership I really enjoyed getting to know and, as the novel moved along, they grew on me as just people, people I wouldn’t mind hanging around with in real life. These detectives are driven to solve crimes and this cop killer case has taken on a life of its own, not surprising since the targets are their own colleagues.

As Ben and Tommy delve deeper into this case as well as the unearthed skeleton from years ago, I appreciated the author not indulging in the overused trope of cops with baggage. That has become tiresome, in my opinion, partly because we all have baggage of some sort and, too often, it feels like the author is just padding the word count, drifting away from the core story. So, my thanks to Mr. Kiska.

Bottomline, this second book was my introduction to a series I think I’m going to enjoy and now I’m going to go hunt down the first book, Now & Then.

[Joan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this police procedure novel that takes readers to the way things were done in the mid-1980s. Detective Winters is a good hero. He methodically goes through the evidence and clues, working to solve the current murders, then working on a decades old one as well. His character is developed well. Detective Mason is a good sidekick. The banter between the two of them added some interest to a methodical investigation. We know who the original villain is so the interest in the book is how he is uncovered rather than finding out who he is.

This is a good police procedure novel for readers interested in detecting techniques from decades ago. Part of the plot deals with powerful people in communities and crooked policemen back in the late 1950s. This novel is the second in a series. It reads well on its own, but figures from the first novel come into this one. This novel would be best enjoyed if the earlier one was read first.

I received a complimentary digital of this book through Partners in Crime Virtual Book Tours. My comments are an independent and honest review.

[M.M. Hudson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did not realize I was reading a second book in a series when I started reading this book. Fortunately, the author gave a brief scenario and understanding of who the main characters were. The book, as the subsequent book, lays out a case of two detectives in the fictional town of Parker.

The book starts in the mid 1980's with a prologue that sets up the book and the first mystery/murder. The first chapter begins with the late 1950's and switches back and forth from there. Shady characters are revealed slowly throughout the book and how they tie in with each other. I use the term "slowly" loosely because in this case, it is the best place for it to be. The characters are built in such a way that I could not help but want to turn the pages as I read.

I loved the mysteries that unfolded in this book and felt the author did such a good job putting it together. He never lost sight of any of his characters and was able to capture what happened with each one.

The only two things I can say that did bug me was this:

The author repeated himself a couple of time by referring to the previous books case and how that effected the detectives' job and psyche. I think that could have been left out.

I was able to figure out who the killer was about 5-6 chapters before it ended. Or at least the connection to the murders. There is a twist and that was good but even that was figured out.

Overall, I liked this book, and it is a good page turner that kept me wanting to read.

Disclosure: I received this book from the author. The review here is 100% my own opinions and may differ from yours. ~Michelle

[Felicia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Told in dual timelines in the fifties/sixties and the eighties, this engaging police procedural begins as two investigations that morph into one.

Detectives Ben Winters and Tommy Mason are called to the scene when a skull is found beneath a building about to be demolished. However, before they can make any headway, it’s all hands on deck and they’re called away when a fellow officer is murdered.

And another cop is murdered.

Then another.

The skull investigation sits idle as Winters and Mason work to track down a serial cop killer before he claims any more victims.

I didn’t realize this was a book two, and didn’t read the first book, but the author did a good job of including just enough detail that I don’t feel there were “holes” or “gaps” in the story.

Ben and Tommy are a good pairing with great partner banter, and not too much personal drama to take away from the main plot.

Though writing in two distinct eras in history, the author does a good job of capturing the noir feel of the fifties/sixties and the frenetic pace of the eighties.

The book opens with an excellent prologue where a grumpy construction worker is making his way to work. For me, the tight, detailed writing created an eerie feel that had me looking for a serial killer to leap out in paragraph!

Readers of police procedurals, crime fiction, and suspense won’t want to miss this read.

Enjoy!

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second book in a series, but I had no trouble delving right into the story.

I loved that it took place in the mid-1980s since it was nice to experience how things might have been handled at that time.

When a buried skeleton was discovered in Parker City during a renovation project, detectives Ben Winters and his sidekick Tommy Mason are called in to solve the mystery. I guess in this case, they had to pull together details more so than uncovering the whodunit.

The detectives worked well together and the dialog rang true as to how partners might razz each other. As Ben and Tommy consider how the skeleton got there, they being to wonder if it might be linked to events that took place many years earlier. So the story begins to span past events and present.

If you like police procedurals, definitely give this a try. I would recommend that you start with the first book Now & Then: A Parker City Mystery since it’s usually good to get in on the ground level of a series. But if you choose not to, this didn’t need the first book to bring a very entertaining story, since each is a stand-alone novel.

I received a complimentary copy from Partners in Crime Virtual Book Tours and the author. My comments are an independent and honest review.

[Pat Fayo Reviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

The 2nd book of the Parker City Mysteries. Can be read as a standalone but I wish I had read the first. Not because you can’t enjoy this one but I am sure I would have enjoyed the first also! This book was very well thought out and put together. It is not always easy to keep a reader entertained and interested when working with a dual timeframe and still keep plenty of twists in the plots. Kiska is very adept at making each plot equally as important so the reader searches through both for clues. Characters are well created as likable, realistic and genuine. The two main detectives really compliment each and their bantering adds a more human side. Interesting and informative as a reminder how times have changed…. How murders were investigated and solved during the 1950’s and the mud 80’s. Would definitely recommend to read. Many thanks to #partnersincrimevbt and the author, JustinM. Kiska, for an ARC copy of this crime fiction. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

[Kate Vale · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another in the Parker City Mystery series, in which Ben Winters and his partner Tommy Mason are in the middle of trying to find out why someone's out to kill cops in their usually quiet little town. What is really vexing is why the investigators realize they've been given 5 bullets--all shot from the same gun--but only four (only?) victims. Which means what's happened this week is somehow related to what happened 25 years earlier. Why? And who has linked them?

As they pull the threads of subtle cues, they begin to get closer to understanding what links them to the victims, but does that also mean they are in danger?

Great tale indeed.

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the second book in "A Parker City Mystery" by Justin M. Kiska and reading the first book isn't necessary but is helpful. I love the characters, Ben Winters and Tommy Mason. I feel like I know them. I enjoy the interaction between them. Justin M. Kiska has a wonderful way with his writing that makes this a page turner for me. Once I got so far into the story, I couldn't put it down until I finished it. Great murder mystery and great writing!!

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the first book but this second was even better. Ben and Tommy feel better fleshed out and connectable.

This story will keep you reading and questioning everything. Quite an enjoyable read.

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid thriller!